Senior executives were accused of promoting a culture of “profits over safety” by prosecutors yesterday as BP stood trial for the Deepwater Horizon disaster three years ago.

In the opening statements of a case that could last a year and cost the oil company billions of dollars more in payouts, prosecutors for the US Department of Justice and lawyers for victims of the disaster said that they would offer evidence of “wilful misconduct” by BP.

The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon killed 11 rig workers and caused the worst oil spill in US history, dumping about four million barrels of